Locations for astronomy

[andrewedmondson]

I have a telescope and would like to find places that I can park overnight and set it up.
The telescope equipment is heavy, so I must be able to park nearby.
So far, I have drawn a blank in the UK.
All of the star gazin car parks are daytime only!
I usually park off grid.
TIA

 

[witzend]

As long as a dark location would it matter what part of the country your in

 

[Boris7]

Your issue will be that you ideally need either a high point (such as the top of a hill) or flat ground all around for general star searching.

So you either need to target what you want to view and plan where to go, or find open sky views with low light ingress.

I use a Meade 8” scope and find Scotland good, but there are plenty of places along the coast where you can get all you need, a good start point is Beachy head, there are signs saying no overnight stops, but just rock up late in the day, don’t put chairs out and if challenged point out the signs are non compliant and stopping for a few hours isn’t overnight parking anyway.

North Yorkshire moors are also good, as is Snowdonia.

There’s a location app at the top of the screen, that will really help you.

 

[mistericeman]

I have a telescope and would like to find places that I can park overnight and set it up.
The telescope equipment is heavy, so I must be able to park nearby.
So far, I have drawn a blank in the UK.
All of the star gazin car parks are daytime only!
I usually park off grid.
TIA

Kielder always a good spot ...
Parts of the Elan valley

Or this map

England’s Light Pollution and Dark Skies

England’s Light Pollution and Dark Skies Map

www.cpre.org.uk

and search for sites app

 

[Scotia]

I think this is the spot we were at a few years ago, not that I was paying much attention to the stars.

Galloway International Dark Sky Park

A Dark Sky Park is a place with exceptionally dark night skies. Galloway Forest Park was designated the fourth Dark Sky Park in the world and the first in the UK.

forestryandland.gov.scot

 

[jacquigem]

If you ever get into the Pyranees I reckon Astun would work. Go in Summer plenty of parking ,no people and more stars than you can imagine.

 

[mistericeman]

I keep meaning to take the Dobby out with us on a trip (we have a C90 Maksutov that lives in the van for terrestrial and astro)

BUT the 300mm flex tube Dobsonian is a bit trickier to deal with

 

[trevskoda]

Dark sky at darva out past cookstown, no problem over nighting in a van.
They have a centre there and lots of walks/ mountain bike runs, toilets etc.

 

[merl]

I have both of these dark sky maps saved, not because I'm a stargazer but because many locations shown are great for overnighting.
https://www.darkskydiscovery.org.uk/dark-sky-discovery-sites/index.html

Stargazing locations map

The best places to stargaze including dark sites and observatories

gostargazing.co.uk

 

[winks]

Dumfries and Galloway has good dark skies and you can take advantage of the Forestry Scotland stay the night scheme. Or look up Craig Croft motorhome stopover near Laurieston. The bonus there is access to a very well set up bird/wildlife hide ten minutes walk away. The owner,Pauline, is very welcoming and will chat yer lugs off.

Cheers

H

 

[Davy]

Brecon Beacons is a dark sky area. Sky watchers tend to go to the upper pitches of the

Grawen Caravan & Camping Park​

 

[GeoffL]

FWIW, we found "Dark Sky Discovery" to be a bit of a damp squib as they 'big up' some not so good locations while ignoring better ones. No matter where you are in UK, you're going to suffer with (or in some cases benefit from) light pollution (LP) -- nowhere in UK has truly dark skies, as you can see from the light pollution map I've linked below. So you need to figure out the magnitude of your objects of interest and then find somewhere where the LP is low enough to allow you to see them. Note that above, I said that in some cases you can benefit from a little light pollution? This is because in truly dark skies, the star field is flooded with higher magnitude (less bright) objects and it can be quite difficult to pick out the objects you actually want to observe. For example, if you're interested in the major planets (esp. Mars, Saturn and Jupiter) or the Moon a little LP isn't a bad thing because those objects are so much brighter than most of the other celestial objects. If you don't already know about them, two websites where you can get a lot of useful info are Stargazers Lounge and GoStargazing.co.uk -- the latter also gives details of public star parties and club meetings. Now to that LP map: Clicky Link

FWIW, we too suffer from your frustration. Our favourite dark sky locations in Cornwall now have height barriers that the council installed during lockdown and there is nowhere local now to take our van (our mobile observatory) to deploy our 6" Newtonian and goto EQ mount, and that OTA has thus sat unused in its box for almost four years

 

[HurricaneSmith]

FWIW, we found "Dark Sky Discovery" to be a bit of a damp squib as they 'big up' some not so good locations while ignoring better ones. No matter where you are in UK, you're going to suffer with (or in some cases benefit from) light pollution (LP) -- nowhere in UK has truly dark skies, as you can see from the light pollution map I've linked below. So you need to figure out the magnitude of your objects of interest and then find somewhere where the LP is low enough to allow you to see them. Note that above, I said that in some cases you can benefit from a little light pollution? This is because in truly dark skies, the star field is flooded with higher magnitude (less bright) objects and it can be quite difficult to pick out the objects you actually want to observe. For example, if you're interested in the major planets (esp. Mars, Saturn and Jupiter) or the Moon a little LP isn't a bad thing because those objects are so much brighter than most of the other celestial objects. If you don't already know about them, two websites where you can get a lot of useful info are Stargazers Lounge and GoStargazing.co.uk -- the latter also gives details of public star parties and club meetings. Now to that LP map: Clicky Link

FWIW, we too suffer from your frustration. Our favourite dark sky locations in Cornwall now have height barriers that the council installed during lockdown and there is nowhere local now to take our van (our mobile observatory) to deploy our 6" Newtonian and goto EQ mount, and that OTA has thus sat unused in its box for almost four years

That link has blown my mind, and probably like many others I've had a brief play. Many thanks for providing it.

I'm absolutely astonished to see it say that where we live has low pollution levels, yet a remote inland place that I oncel I lived in West Africa has a high one. Going to have to read the blurb to better understand the mechanics behind it.

 

[GeorgeS]

Grassholme reservoir in Teesdale, Durham
You can park overnight (small fee) and it has its own dark sky observatory

 

[Mothership]

I have a telescope and would like to find places that I can park overnight and set it up.
The telescope equipment is heavy, so I must be able to park nearby.
So far, I have drawn a blank in the UK.
All of the star gazin car parks are daytime only!
I usually park off grid.
TIA

Well this is right up my street!. We have been travelling to Dark Sky areas for the last 10 years from Nordkapp to Greece and spend most wintes in inland Spain. We never go near the Spanish Costas as it's become motorhome overload and inland the villages and people are so much nicer. Now with 100K miles on the van, we know most dark areas of Europe and attend most of the Astro Camps in UK and Europe and our widefield and galaxy broadband and narrowband scopes and mounts are always with us. The best spot in southern Spain is at the summit of Calar Alto, (observatory) if it's not snowing or windy, but most places inland are really dark. We are often visited by police all over Europe but when they see the scopes outside, they usually spend half hour chatting and looking at images and no issue whatsoever. Here in Wales and England the same, scopes out and no problem, Scotland of course is never an issue just be sensible where you park. Some images here for interest.

 

[Mothership]

And the scopes

 

[UfoJoe]

I used to do a bit of satellite spotting, one of the best locations near me with very little light pollution is not far from Leek -

ST13 8UN · Thorncliffe, Leek

Postcode

maps.app.goo.gl

 

[Outdoors Dad]

Northumberland is a good spot, kielder as suggested. The Derwent valley Co Durham is also a fantastic spot for both vanning and star gazing

 

[merl]

Well this is right up my street!. We have been travelling to Dark Sky areas for the last 10 years from Nordkapp to Greece and spend most wintes in inland Spain. We never go near the Spanish Costas as it's become motorhome overload and inland the villages and people are so much nicer. Now with 100K miles on the van, we know most dark areas of Europe and attend most of the Astro Camps in UK and Europe and our widefield and galaxy broadband and narrowband scopes and mounts are always with us. The best spot in southern Spain is at the summit of Calar Alto, (observatory) if it's not snowing or windy, but most places inland are really dark. We are often visited by police all over Europe but when they see the scopes outside, they usually spend half hour chatting and looking at images and no issue whatsoever. Here in Wales and England the same, scopes out and no problem, Scotland of course is never an issue just be sensible where you park. Some images here for interest.

Awesome, well done! Fantastic images

 

[Borders2]

Nowhere in the UK has dark skies? Seems pretty damn black to me in a lot of places.